How to Kick Start a Motorbike.

by Steamdnt in Outside > Bikes

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How to Kick Start a Motorbike.

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This is my first burning questions entry on how to start a 1977 Suzuki RV 125 trail/Road bike. We acquired this bike from a farmer, who was selling his farm and moving into Edmonton to live out his retirement . time my Father At that time my Father had owned a machine shop and had a reputation of taking on almost any job and completing it. Said farmer drives up to the shop suzuki crotch rocket in the back of his pickup. Goes in and says "I'll give you three motorbikes if you can start mine" of coarse we said yes, he wheels the bike in and my father looks at it, kicks it over, nothing, again nothing, he turns on the electric start the motorbike putses, pops then stops. He says to the farmer, come back in three hours. Three hours later the farmer walks back in expecting that the bike was doomed. My father Stands up from his desk and says "finally come here" He walks over to the bike turns on the ignition, gas and kill, hits the electric start and it starts and runs fine.I turns out the points needed to be adjusted.
This bike when we got it, was not running, the handlebars had been bent in half,and the turn signals had been knocked off.
We got the parts from a local wrecker and the only thing wrong with the engine was that it had the wrong sized piston in it and the exhaust pipe was broken.

Disengage the Kill Switches

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Turn the Key to the second click like you would on a car , Then on the right hand handle bar turn on the secondary engine kill.

On With the Gas

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This step is almost self explanatory, but for the people who don't know the gas switch is usually located beside the Carberator or underneath the gas tank. Refer to picture Below.

Prime the Engine (Not Required) (cold Start on an Old Bike)

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Turn over the engine slower twice, this will prime the engine, I'm not sure why this works but it seems to help with my old bike.

Start'er Up!

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Now after all of that finally time to start the engine. If you are Left footed or the bike has a left side starter, pull up the kick stand and stand beside or sit on your bike with the kick starter. Make sure that the bike is in neutral, flip open the kick starter bar thing put your left or right foot on it (depending on weather your left footed or its a left sided bike) jump off of the ground and and with all of your force on the foot that is on the kick starter.
for people that have a are right footed or have a right sided starter you can sit on the bike with your right foot on the starter and jump down on your right foot.you can also follow the steps above but reversed. repeat this no more than four times, as this can flood the engine.
(edit) Thanks to Uglymike. Some bikes have an auto-decompression system. These system's make the bike easier to start by removing the compression of the piston for the first stroke, the engine then uses the momentum to start the engine effortlessly.
(edit) thanks to rishani. Some bikes may have a manual spark advance system, these system have a tendancy to sometimes kick back and will throw you clean over the handlebars. the best way to start one is to make sure that your knee is bent and that it will absorb the shock from a kickback.

Troubleshooter

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IF your bike refuses to start--- turn on the choke and kick it over a couple times.If it start rev the engine till it starts to die then quickly flip the choke off and your bike is started. if i didn't turn off the choke and kick it over a couple times.

I did what you said and it didn't start, What would be your diagnosis?--- I would say the first thing you should try is replacing the spark plug, if that doesn't work take it to a motor cycle repair shop and ask for them to clean the Carb, or if your a mechanic you can yourself but it is not recommended.

When i kick my bike over it jumps forward whats wrong?--- your bike is not in neutral.Put it into neutral then try again.